bered with touching descriptions of their lives, efforts and last moments. The Vie de la Mère Marie de l'Incarnation, and of Father Chaumonot are well known. There was one of these biographical letters printed with the Relation of 1669, but which, according to a vague tradition, had been published separately, and only for a few personal friends. We refer to the Lettre circulaire de la mort de la Reverende Mère Catharine de S. Augustin, Religieuse Hospitalière de Quebec. Mr. Barlow had set his heart on acquiring that rarissime book, if it ever could be discovered. The fact is that for an American bibliophile, who already possessed fifty-two copies of the Jesuit Relations in original editions, whilst the richest private libraries in that class of works had never contained more than fortythree,* the Lettre Circulaire was worth having It had never figured in any sale or catalogue, and no traces of the book could be found in the inventories of the religious orders which we had been able to consult. We found it in a Paris bookstore, but the seller, who only suspected the value of it, was not long in becoming convinced of its importance, and fixed the price accordingly. It figures in the present catalogue under No. 1469.

We could mention many other extremely valuable books, which patience, a liberal outlay and peculiar circumstances, permitted Mr. Barlow to place in his library. The reader will easily recognize them in the adjoining pages.

* The most numerous collections of original editions of the Jesuit Relations ever offered for sale are the following:

COURTENVAUX, Paris, 1783, including duplicates, 43.

Mr. Barlow's set comprises, including duplicates, 53, including one which is unique as a separate edition.

There is no complete set of these Jesuit Relations in original editions anywhere. The one coming nearest completion is in the Paris National Library, particularly since we caused the duplicate copy of the Relation of 1632, which was in the Arsenal Library, to be added. We have since found another copy of that first Relation in the Mazarine (No. 35,788).

The wish of that kind and generous man always was that his library should be kept intact, if possible, and rendered after his death as practically useful to the student as it had always been in his lifetime. To that effect, in 1883, he proposed to a New York literary institution to purchase it after having been valued by disinterested experts, and to give one-half of the valuation. In justice to his family he could not do more. Nothing, however, came of this liberal offer; and many years will elapse before patriotic donors and richly endowed societies are graced with another such opportunity to acquire those indispensable elements of the history of America.

Millions and millions of dollars have been bequeathed during the last few years in New York, in Illinois, in California and in other States for the purpose of founding extensive public libraries. The amounts are certainly large enough to allow the acquisition of ancient books, as well as of those modern volumes, which can be easily obtained and which are destined to be always in the market. Can it be said that the administrators of those munificent and judicious bequests duly appreciate the entire importance of the trusts committed to them, when they let pass with supine indifference chances like the present, which will not occur again more than once or twice in a century, to secure at once books of such paramount importance for the history of our country? We have no Archivo de Indias, no Simancas, and since those books are the nearest copies of original manuscripts which are now lost, a collection of them should form the nucleus of a repository of printed archives. True it is that the Lenoxiana contains nearly all the early publications and we can still form one or two collections of that character. Boston or Philadelphia, Chicago or San Francisco, when in possession of ample means due to the patriotic munificence of American citizens, should take it at heart to enrich its public library with such historical and literary treasures.

Perhaps the trustees imagine that Americana of the kind which we have just described can be found at any time. Not long since, a bibliophile of that school walked into our office, with the Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima under his arm, and asked us to give

him the address of the store in Paris where all the works mentioned in that bibliography could be purchased at a reasonable price. His surprise was unbounded when informed that if he possessed all the money of Mr. Vanderbilt and had a century of life before him, he could not with that wealth, and .in a hundred years, hope to get scarcely more than two-thirds of those books. Still, it was already something to the credit of that well-meaning citizen to have thought of including the accounts sent by Columbus, Vespuccius, Cortez, Pizarro and Jacques Cartier in an American public library.

Barlow's greatest wish was to benefit others even more than himself; and his library remained open to any one who desired to consult it. You had only to come to the house, ring the bell, express your intention, and you were at once ushered into that hospitable "Black Library," where every bookcase was constantly kept unlocked. If unable to come in person, or residing in a distant city, books, maps and manuscripts were forwarded to the student who stood in need of them to continue or complete historical labors. As we are writing these lines, probably several valuable volumes and atlases still circulate hundreds of miles away from New York. The only regret of the owner was that so few availed themselves of the privilege.

That great and open-handed bibliophile certainly appreciated, as well as any one, unique copies, priceless editions and artistic bindings; but the possession of such rarities did not dry up his heart or enfeeble his mind. He would have blushed to keep for himself in a selfish and inabordable solitude a single one of those books, however precious, especially when it could, in the hands of a competent investigator, throw light upon certain obscure periods of our history. He was generous to excess; and many a one, near and far, from Madison Avenue or William Street, has received at his hands important services, discreetly proffered, and still more discreetly received, which the ingratitude of some, and dishonesty of others, never prevented him from rendering again, to the last day of his life.

Nor were his efforts limited to dispensing liberally sources of information by means of one of the best libraries of American

books ever brought together, and in causing to be printed at his own cost, for private distribution, works on American subjects, which could not have been published otherwise.* He strove also to inculcate in the few young men who cared for historical knowledge, notions of an elevated character regarding the early history of America, and a critical study of the facts and original authorities. He knew and felt that next to Christianity, the discovery of the New World was the greatest event of our era, and one destined, ere long perhaps, to evolve consequences which may remodel the conquests of European civilization. The voyages of Columbus, Vespuccius, the Pinzons, Magellan, Cartier, will then be altogether things of the past, and studied probably with as much care and perseverance as scholars now endeavor to elucidate Solomon's expeditions to Ophir and Tharsis. If so, it will be necessary to interrogate again the old archives, and to examine by the light of trustworthy analysis and critical inquiries all the data and evidence. Then shall we weigh the assertions and conclusions of modern historians, and see what is to become of the works of certain writers and critics, particularly those who now-a-days dispense with citing authorities for events alleged to have occurred centuries ago; and modestly claim for their elucubrations the confidence accorded to the Gospel.

In keeping with those ideas, Barlow urged his friends to pave the way for such useful and laborious pursuits, by devoting their time, their intelligence and their means to the search of original and authentic documents. He pressed them to explore the Vatican, the Frarii and Marciana, Simancas, La Lonja and the Escorial, the Bank of St. George and Uffizi, and bring to light from those famous repositories of archives, perhaps only a name, a date or a mere allusion,

* Letters of Christopher Columbus describing his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere. Texts and translation. New York (Cambridge, Riverside press), 1865, folio.

Notes on Columbus. New York (ibidem), 1866, folio.

Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima. New York, 1866, large 8vo.

Letter of Christopher Columbus. Text in fac-simile. New York, 1875, 8vo. Relation de la prise des forts de Chouegen, ou Oswego, et de ce qui s'est passé cette année en Canada. 1756. Reprint, New York, 1882, 4to.

Christopher Columbus and the Bank of Saint George. New York (London, Chiswick Press), 1888, large 4to. &c., &c.

but still something which might enable honest historians to elucidate obscure points of our old annals. When once in possession of those inestimable elements, there would still remain the task of establishing the text on a sound basis; illustrating it with notes and extracts from other manuscripts; and finally exposing in an exact and precise statement, bolstered with every proof, the results so dearly obtained. "Even then," he was wont to say philosophically, "the truth will only be relative and of a transitory character, as further investigations, or new modes of thought, may impair synthetic conclusions deemed heretofore incontestable ;-and thus it will be to the end of time." And he quoted the instances of Augustin Thierry, Motley, and a number of other conscientious historians.

Barlow, particularly during the last few years of his life, was fond of reading history; not, however, in those famous compilations or didactic works, which set forth pretended conclusive answers to every question imaginable, and where political fawning or grandiloquence, is made to replace a sincere and difficult study of the original sources. He much preferred the modest and short disquisitions confined to a single event, character or date, but exhibiting initial researches, method and acumen. Tolerant as he was, it distressed him to see the constant, barefaced repetition of doubtful facts, unsupported assertions, and fallacies of long standing, all paraphrased, or presented as the unimpeachable results of novel, arduous and personal studies, which constitute the woof and warp of so many modern works.

In the hope of curing that malady of our historical writers and encyclopedists, which he considered almost as a public calamity, Barlow was untiring in his efforts to impress upon students the necessity of dismissing at the outset every preconceived notion relative. to the subject which they proposed to investigate.

"If you possibly can, commence," said he, " as Descartes did when preparing to write his Discourse on Method, by making tabula rasa of all previous knowledge regarding the particular point of inquiry. Ascend to the fountain-head, wherever it may be; examine for yourself every element with the utmost care, and mark down the cause